Rodeo parade won't be on TV: KGUN taking a pass because of the expense

Rodeo parade won't be on TV KGUN taking a pass because of the expense By Sarah Mauet ARIZONA DAILY STAR If you want to see the Tucson Rodeo Parade today, you're going to have to watch it in person. For the first time in a generation, not one news station in Tucson will be televising the parade. For more than 30 years, KGUN-TV Channel 9 has aired the parade in its entirety, but despite good ratings, the station will not be televising it this year - the price tag of $20,000 to $25,000 is simply too high, KGUN Vice President and General Manager Ray Depa said. "I can't keep losing the money I've been losing on it," he said. "When you don't run commercials during the parade and even if we did, and we used to we'd never, ever recover our hard cost. I simply can't afford to continue doing that." KOLD-TV Channel 13 aired Rodeo parade starts here '3AV AJO 3AV HIZI Tucson Entrance: Rodeo HIXIS general Grounds parking (blocked Entrance: 'Arena during box seat parade) parking IRVINGTON Grandstands M8Vd the parade for a couple of years and also grappled with the cost. "It's a tremendous overtime cost, it's a tremendous equipment allocation cost," KOLD Vice President and General Manager Jim Arnold said. "It's a massive project for a threehour event." Arnold decided a few years ago not to compete with KGUN over coverage of the community event. However, with KGUN stepping aside, Arnold said KOLD might reconsider televising the parade next year. "We take a look at it every year, and we would look at it again if nobody was going to do it," he said. In the past, Telemundo's local Staff affiliate, KHRR-TV Channel 40, has televised the entire parade, but rather than showing the morning parade live, it televised it in Spanish during prime time. KHRR didn't have the funding to do that this year. "We don't have enough crew to go out there, and we didn't get a sponsor," KHRR program manager Lupita Celaya said. "Hopefully we'll be able to continue next year, maybe." You can see the parade in person as it heads south on South Park Avenue from East Ajo Way beginning at 9 a.m. It turns west on East Irvington Road to South Sixth Avenue and ends at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds. You can also catch clips of the parade on any news station, including KGUN. "We'll cover it as a news story," Depa said. "We did that when we televised the parade. It is a big event, and I'm sure it will get appropriate coverage it just simply won't be tele, vised." • Contact reporter Sarah Mauet at 573-4124 or at smauet@azstarnet.com.

Arizona Daily Star

Rodeo parade won't be on TV: KGUN taking a pass because of the expense

Rodeo parade won't be on TV: KGUN taking a pass because of the expense

Arizona Daily Star